Will today be the day the peach tree falls?

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who lived with his mother in a simple cottage by a pond. Now on their property, there was a peach tree that was dying.  And the little boy simply hated the fact that the peach tree was still up since it was clearly dying.

So one morning the boy went to his mother and asked, "Will today be the day the peach tree falls mommy?" 

"I don't know. Maybe it will. But I sure hope it won't!" She replied with a smile. "It produces wonderful peaches and it really is quite beautiful." she added. 

The kid was quite upset at what his mother said for he didn't agree with her.  He wasn't sure why but he hated that old peach tree.  No matter what anyone said he continued on in his hatred for the tree.

"But mother, it's dying and will surely fall soon. Perhaps we should just knock it over! Then we won't have to deal with it anymore!"  the boy responded, feeling quite proud of his suggestion.

His mother was now getting frustrated with him. "I don't care what you have to say but I love that old peach tree!  And we will not knock it down! I understand that it will fall one day but there is no need to bring it down sooner." his mother responded sternly.

The boy sighed in frustration but nodded to his mother to show he understood. Or so his mother thought.  For the little boy still wanted the peach tree gone so he made his way outside to the tree.  Once he was there he decided to kick the tree. The tree then leaned slightly from the kick. The boy was proud of his work, saying, "Well, you might not fall today but you'll surely have fallen by tomorrow!"  The boy then made his way back inside.

There happened to be a little girl watching from some nearby bushes. She was upset that the boy had such hatred for the tree for she thought that it was a beautiful tree. So she went and helped bring it back up and watered it lightly. She also decided to leave some pretty stones around it that she had found by the pond.  Once the girl was done tending to the tree she went back home for the day.

The next morning the boy woke up and went to find his mother.  He found her in the kitchen making breakfast so he went up to her.  And of course, he asked again the question from the previous day, "Will today be the day the peach tree falls?" 

His mother stopped and looked at him, saying, "I don't know. But I sure hope not. As I said yesterday, it's a beautiful tree that produces wonderful peaches.  And hoping that it will fall sooner than necessary will do no good." 

The boy was once again angered, still not quite knowing why. But of course, he said, "But mother, when I went to check on it yesterday it was starting to fall over!"

"Was it really?" his mother asked curiously. "I thought it was doing just fine." She thought for a moment and then spoke again, "Unless you did something to it... Which I have to say would be very disappointing." She concluded.

The boy got a little nervous but tried not to give himself away. "Of course I didn't.  I would never hurt that old tree!" He said with a nervous laugh. "In fact, I'll go check on it now!" he said in a hurry.

"But breakfast is almost ready-" His mother shouted to him as he went out the door. But she wasn't quite quick enough. He had already made his way out the door and was headed to the peach tree.

The boy got to the tree only to see that it was now upright again and had some nice little stones placed around it.  He also noticed that the soil was slightly damp.  He knew it hadn't rained or anything the night before.  So being a young boy, he assumed that it must be magic.  But that brought him no comfort.  He thought magic seemed dangerous. And the old peach tree being magic only made him hate it more.  So he decided to show the tree his anger and take away the rocks.  He also decided to kick the tree again, but this time even harder. 

The boy finished up his work in harming the tree.  He once again felt proud and headed back to his house for breakfast. What the boy didn't know is that the little girl was once again watching from the bushes.  This time though she was very upset by his actions.  In fact, the girl was now crying.  It pained her to see the boy harming the tree.  She knew that the tree was a beautiful thing which had done nothing wrong.

The girl was now so so upset that she decided to go home. And thought maybe she would just come and fix the tree in the early morning instead. So she made her way back home and made her plans for the next day.

And again the next day the boy woke up. Although on this morning he got up particularly early so he could sneak out to the peach tree. He had planned to finally just cut it down.
So he got up and snuck out to the back of the house to get the axe then headed out to the old peach tree.

He arrived at the peach tree and began to hack away at it with the axe.
He continued hitting at it, struggling and crying. Then out of the bushes there appeared a girl. The girl saw him and panicked, running to him.

She managed to stop him from continuing to hit the tree. Then they sat there as the boy tried to calm down and stop crying. The girl asked him why he would do such a thing.

So the boy explained, "I just don't know why that peach tree is even still standing or why it deserves to keep standing!" He sobbed out to the girl. "It's produced bad fruit multiple times and mother still loves it and keeps it! I just can't understand why.." he cried out quietly.

The girl looked at him with sympathy filled eyes, saying, "So maybe the tree has produced bad fruit a couple times... But it's also produced good fruit many times throughout the years that it's stood." She smiled at him.

He looked at her, continuing to wipe away his tears. "Yeah but still the bad fruit should be a reason to cut it down right?" He asked quietly.

"Absolutely not!" The girl shouted at him. "People make mistakes and we don't harm them for it. So we most certainly should not hurt this tree for producing a couple bad fruits!" She reasoned sternly.

Finally the boy understood.  And he started crying again. Sobbing even. The girl hugged him as he continued sobbing, now into her shoulder.

After he finally calmed down and they talked for about an hour, they headed back to the boy's house. The boy's mom burst out of the house and hugged him, telling him how worried she was about him and how happy she was to have him home safe.

The girl told the mom what had happened. And she hugged the boy tighter. The boy expected his mom to be mad. But she wasn't, she was just happy he was okay.

And the boy finally learned to love that old peach tree and keep it safe and healthy as could be. Nourishing it to the day it died.

                         The end